Sunday Rest: Vacuole. Word Not To Use Today.

If a vacuole was a hole that was vacuous - like the mouth of an idiot - then I could put up with it as a word.

(And, now I come to think about it, the English language really needs a word for the mouth of an idiot!)

Sadly, a vacuole is actually a fluid-filled cavity in the cytoplasm of a cell.

Ha! you will say, and what's the point of that when it's at home? and I would join you in a very happy contempt, except that I've gone and done a bit of research and it turns out that the vacuole of a cell is quite useful. It does stuff like stopping plants from falling over, imprisoning poisons and threats, bagging up waste, bagging up water, stopping things getting too alkaline, expelling rubbish, allowing plants to grow quickly, and storing proteins used for germination.

This is all vital stuff... 

....but then that just shows how pathetically inadequate vacuole is as a word, doesn't it?

Word Not To Use Today: vacuole. This word is French for little vacuum. It was coined by the biologist Félix Dujardin in 1842. The word comes from the Latin vacuus, which means empty.